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Author Notes: My brother in law has a reputation for loving peanut butter. The first Christmas after our wedding, I packed up a tin of homemade cookies to send out to my now expanded family. Garry's reaction to these cookies was 'WOW',. Since then, I send the standard mixed cookie tin to his family, and a separate tin with a dozen peanut butter sandwich cookies just for him. They are ethereally light, crispy and mmmmm-inducing. Make them small - they are very rich. I use a teaspoon sized scoop. The recipe came to me from a friend of a friend, so many years ago I can't even recall. It is easily the most popular of the 20 or so types I make. —MrsWheelbarrow

Place rounded teaspoons of dough on the sheet pan, about 2" apart, and press down gently with a fork or with two floured fingers.

Bake about 10-12 minutes, until barely golden on top, and golden brown on the bottom. The cookies will be very soft, so don't fuss with them until they cool.

Allow the cookies to cool completely while you make the sandwich cream.

Sandwich Cream

8 tablespoons butter

2cups confectioners sugar

1cup creamy peanut butter

1cup finely chopped semisweet chocolate or miniature chips

4-6tablespoons heavy cream

1/2teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the sugar, butter and peanut butter together.

Stir in vanilla and chocolate. Add cream until smooth enough to spread.

Put the little cookies together, gluing one half to the other with a very generous schmear of sandwich cream. If you are very lucky, there will be broken halves, or uneven numbers - as that means a little snack for the baker.

Just packed a bunch of these off to my youngest at camp. A cry from the wilderness came for peanut butter and that lead me here. What a phenomenal recipe. Such a cut above the standard. I thank you and I know a certain group of boys off the grid in Vermont are thanking you, too!!

Just returned from picking up Grizzly Adams. After hiking into the camp I was accosted, and I'm not exaggerating, by my son and 9 of his fellow campers. "Those were AWESOME!" "Can you send my mom that recipe?!" "Those were the BEST cookies we had all summer!!" "Did you crush Reese's up for the filling??" and my favorite, "Did you bring more?"

Dear MrsWheelbarrow!! What a recipe!! Thanks. I didn't follow your instruction about the teaspoon scoop at first because I didn't have one. The larger one didn't work because it's a very crumbly dough. Now I understand what you meant by use wet fingers. They work very well. I had quite a bit of filling left but I will use it on toast, muffins or to make a filling for plain sugar cookies I will make make later today with my grandchildren. Thanks again.

I've made the batter and filling for this recipe and would like to freeze both. Should I roll the dough into a log and cover in heavy foil to freeze? Also, can I freeze the filling in a heavy Tupperware container?

Hi Janet, I've never frozen these cookies. They have such a light crumb, I'm not sure how they will do after freezing. The log may reduce the cookie's lift. I'm so curious, so please let me know how it works!

Mmmmmmmm. These are really really good. They will be snatched up quickly at my sisters house on Xmas eve!

A few notes to future bakers. Make them small as they are really rich. I made them too big and we have been cutting them in half too share. I also recommend refrigerating them until just before serving.

Next time I make them, I may put the mini chips in the cookie dough instead of the sandwich cream. I may also use a bit less sugar in the dough as they are sweet with the sandwich creme. The cookies are crumbly but making sure you bake them until golden brown on the bottom as recommended by the recipe author seemed to firm up the cookie. Maybe another egg in the batter might do this too. I made mine gluten free by using a blend of millet, oat, white rice, almond, sorghum flours with potato starch so that may have been why they were crumbly.

Wonderful recipe and they will be enjoyed. Thanks so much for sharing!!!

I made these today for a Sunday meeting of the San Ignacio Art League. They (and I) loved them! The texture was just right for a sandwich cookie (would have been a little crumbly without the filling) and the fillinf was really, really good! I started making them as the recipe suggested, by rounded teaspoonsful. After 52 of those, which were 1 3/4" in diameter. Then I switched to a #50 portion scoop (3-3/4 teaspoons) and made 18 more, which were 2 1/2" in diameter...all from the same batch of batter. Howcomeisit that when a cookie recipe says to use teaspoonful amounts I end up with two or three times the number of cookies there should be?! If I had used that #50 scoop for all of them, I would have had about 445-50 cookies.

And while I'm on a rant - What's with the inconsistent measurment of butter (ounces for the cookies and tablespoons for the filling)? Glad I too it literally and used 12 tablespoons for the cookies!

Hi Wiley, hey, you're totally right about the inconsistencies! I'm so sorry. I've just made two batches of these cookies. I use a tiny scoop, about 3/4" across, and get 48 sandwich cookies or use a larger scoop, about 1-1/2" across, and get 20 sandwich cookies. I prefer the tiny size as they are so rich.

Who doesn't LOVE peanut butter cookies!!! Here's a silly question: I see that the cookie recipe makes 4 dozen. So then when you're done, you'll have 2 dozen sandwiched cookies, right? I need to know because I'll be making these for a food52 function and there's no way I'm getting out of the house without leaving some for my kids. If the end-yield is 2 dozen, looks like I'll have to double it...darnit ;-)

I'd definitely go with a commercial (not natural) brand of PB like JIF or Skippy, particularly for the frosting/creme. I think the stabilizers in the commercial brands lend themselves to the consistency of the PB frosting/creme.

I made this last week with Jif and it was amazing. Today, I inadvertently grabbed Whole Foods natural peanut butter to make these for a party tomorrow. Of course when I opened it - there was that separated layer - but the cookies look and taste great (I mixed the PB layers very well in the jar). Any particular reason to avoid the natural peanut butter?

I have a question about step 4 on the recipe "All I Want For Christmas Peanut Butter Cookies" from MrsWheelbarrow. It says:
"Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Fold into butter mixture thoroughly, but gently."